I'm a Canadian, eh!

We took the final step in becoming Canadian Citizens this week, and went along to our Citizenship Ceremony, where we swore allegiance to the Queen (in both languages) and sung O'Canada (in either language). So that's it, we're Canadian now, just like the girls.

One wrinkle that we didn't quite foresee was that they took our permanent resident cards off us at the door, so we're stuck here. "That's it, you're citizens, now you stay here!" This means we will have to get our passports sooner rather than later, as we can leave on our UK passports, but have no formal proof that'll let us back in the country on anything other than a visitors visa. They do give us a lovely Citizenship Certificate, but it's not a travel document.

We should also be on the voting register just in time for the upcoming provincial elections.

So that's it, we can now stay as long as we like, or indeed up and leave, but return when we wish. Nice.

Photos Of Montreal Embody The Essence Of The City

K has an eagle eye, and spotted me and the girls in one of these pics by photographer Sylvain Quidot.

Quote of the Week

"When the train of history hits a curve, the intellectuals fall off.” 

Karl Marx.

Summer Camp

As a kid in the UK, I was fully aware of the American phenomenon that is summer camp. Through the media as well as knowing it as something my Canadian cousins did. I wrongly assumed it to be a form of boarding camp where children were sent so spend their summers away from their family, evacuee style. Probably in the back-woods. Kind of what Boy's Brigade camp but for longer, and with bears.  

Needless to say, as a kid, I was abhorred that North American parents felt so little for their kids that they would thoughtlessly send them away for the whole summer!

Skip forward a few years, and I'm a parent in North America, faced with a kid starting school, and therefore having her first summer holiday. Summer holidays are looooong. We only have so many holidays we can take. Enter the Summer Camp. Day camp of course which was obviously the same kind of camp that the bulk of kids were going to, including my cousins, back in the day, when I had falsely assumed they were being carted away to boarding camp for months on end. Far from it. In fact, if I had access to something like this as a kid, I would have loved it, and so far LP does too.

She's being exposed to new sports (tennis and basketball so far) as well as swimming and doing art and drama (learning songs) every day, some of her favourite things to do. Every day I go to pick her up, she's excited to tell me what she's been doing, and her swimming seems to be advancing at a great rate.

If there's a downside, it's that the camp is anglophone. Don't get me wrong, it's great that she's being exposed to an anglo environment that is not her closest family and friends, but she's coming home with this funny accent. Ts are being dropped all over the place, especially in water and mosquito, and there us upspeak! I don't know which is worse, this, or the fact she's learning all the words and the moves to One Direction songs (which she is teaching to her little sister)! The Horror!

New Addition to the Family

LP said to  the other week:

"I have a hypothesis. It is that our family needs a cat. A hypothesis means I have an idea and that we need to test it..."

Thank you Dinosaur Train, for educating my child. But as hypotheses go, it's not one I want to test. However, on a visit to the pet shop at the weekend, just as a way of entertaining the kids for 5 minutes, we found a suitable replacement for a cat. So, may I now present to you, Don (the hypothesis).

He's a Netherland Dwarf, born on the 8th of Feb (so a little over 1 month old), and he weighs in at a miniscule 220grams. I was opting for Don the Dutch, or Don the Dwarf, but Don Hypothesis seems to have stuck.

I'll post some better pics with the kids soon.

Quote of the Week

I have been working through a whole bunch of books I've had on my wishlist for years on my kindle. Mostly because they're free. I've made it along the line to Machiavelli. I need go no further to defend the writing's modern day significance after I read the following:

It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things, because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.

Machiavelli "The Prince".
Chapter VI Concerning New Principalities which are acquired by one's own arms and ability.

I see Machiavelli tried to start a union too!

Festive update

The last few months have been rather hectic, and vacation free, so I was sorely in need of some time off come the Christmas break. We've managed to squeeze a lot into the time off, considering we've been dealing with gastro, and record breaking blizzards (45.6 cm in the city a record for snowfall in one day). All I can say is now that winter is here in earnest, my snowboard is primed and ready, although there has been a bit of a thaw the last day or two.

A video of Montreal after the snow storm here.

All this meant LP and I made a lazy igloo in the garden by blocking up the windows of the play house.

As always, pics under the cut. Click them to enlarge.